A great place to buy spare computer parts and accessories

Two weeks ago, Goodwill opened a computerworks store in Lawrenceville (51st Street).  I must say that it is a great place to buy parts and accessories.  As I wondered around the aisles, I thought to myself, "this is ebay without the shipping!"  I will be back.  There were many things I wanted to buy, but did not need, but the prices were so good that I was tempted anyway.   All laptop bags are $4.99.  The computer prices are decent as well.  As someone who mourned the loss of the computer show at the old Expo Mart in Monroeville, this store brings back the hope that I can get good computer parts without Ebay!

Eating up your cell phone's data limit

Recently, a customer asked me how she could be using so much of her monthly data quota from AT&T.  They had called her with a friendly reminder that some members of her family were approaching the monthly limit.  She wanted to know what could they possibly be doing to use so much data in a month.  My first thought was tethering, but quickly ruled that out for some other reasons.   Well what could do it?  The two biggest culprits are typically streaming music and streaming video.    Each, if done on a regular basis will eat up your data plans.  Use Wifi as much as possible and turn off some of the unneccessary location services that some apps use.  For more data eating solutions, check out this PCWorld article.

Is Apple now king of the world?

A recent post on here indicated how Apple now has more cash than the federal government.  Now they have a new accomplishment, the most valuable company in the WORLD.  They have now passed Exxon-Mobil as the richest company in the world.  We are talking about approximately 345 billion cash on hand as of today.  Keep in mind, the iphone 5 and iPad 3 is heavily rumored to be coming out later this year, so the lead will only grow.

My new favorite Anti-Virus program for your PC......Ad Aware Free Internet Security Suite

For years I have recommended Microsoft Security Essentials as your anti-virus program.  It is lightweight, does a good job in general and most importantly, is free.  Well no more, a new program has stolen my heart, Ad-Aware Free Internet Security Suite.  It has many of the qualities that I love in a free anti-virus, it's lightweight, stays out of your way (ie. no nagging messages about what a great job it's doing or trying to sell you the paid version) and does a good job.  PCmag.com recently did a test of all the most recent free anti-virus programs and Ad Aware came out on top as the most effective at removing malware from your system.  It was the tops amongst all the free programs.

Email and Search are still our favorite online activities

With the explosion of Facebook and Netflix over the past couple of years, you would think that they were the most popular things to do on the Internet, but no!  E-mailing and Search are still king of the Web.  This is one of the findings announced in a report released Tuesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.  92% of all online adults engage in search and e-mail.  61% do it daily.  Where does social networking fall?  At a meager 65% of adults online use Facebook, Google+ or similar sites.  Read more here.

Test your Broadband speed for free

How fast is your actual broadband speed and does it live up to what was advertised?  Well now you can find out on your own and it's free.  Head over to broadband.gov.  There is a free broadband test that you can take to see what your actual speed is.  All you need is the latest version of Java installed to take the test.  The information collected on your speed is being used to help craft a national broadband strategy.  Ultimately the plan would extend broadband access to all Americans.  An initial survey of ISP's shows that only Comcast and Verizon consistently delivered promised upload and download speeds to their customers.  For the full results of the survey, check it out here.